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Harvesting Hope

When it comes to farming, Massachusetts will never be confused with the Midwest. Still, there are nearly 8000 farms in the mostly urbanized Bay State. What’s more, over the last decade or so, from Copley Square in Boston to the rolling hills of the Berkshires, farmers markets have sprung up all in between and are thriving like fast-growing field greens.

You may or may not make it to the farmers market you’ll find on summer Friday afternoons in front of the Greater Boston YMCA in Roxbury. But you may not find a more inspiring farmers market, either.

“This right here, we have lettuce, and we have Swiss chard….”

Fifteen-year-old Justin Riggins is pointing out the produce to an interested customer, an older woman who has stopped at the small, covered table area that makes up this small farmers market on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Riggins, who lives in Dorchester, is a sophomore at Boston Latin Academy. He also has an intimate knowledge of the produce he’s pointing out and selling. After all, he grew it.

Along with about a dozen other mostly inner-city school kids from Boston’s Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods, Riggins is part of a unique and innovative joint program of the Greater Boston YMCA and the Trustees of Reservations.

It’s called City Harvest, and for five days a week for two summer months, it creates a green and wonderful refuge for young people who might otherwise have fewer options to avoid the city’s stifling summer heat and the challenge of finding a good summer job. Each morning, at 8 a.m., the kids board a bus in Mattapan Square and are driven the twelve miles or so to Bradley Estate in Canton.

It might as well be 200 miles.

The trees are tall and shady; the grass is lush and green. Past the trees and down the narrow roadway, the fields stretch out less than a mile from busy route 138. Birds chirp, crickets buzz, and kids who have never planted a flower never mind a crop of eggplant or string beans are working away under the hot, August sun. And loving it.

“It feels great, you know what I mean?”

We’re chatting with Justin Riggins out in a field of golden, yellow squash that he’s harvesting. It’s hot, and it’s not easy work, as he must bend down to the ground repeatedly, then walk back along the row to carefully place the picked vegetables in a waiting bin. But he’s not complaining.

“It’s hard work, yeah, but being here with all the great people, it’s amazing,” he says, wiping his forehead. “But it gives you a certain fulfillment, because some of the places we go to sell this don’t have the same opportunity to get excellent food quality. It feels good to know you can help somebody.”

It’s a tight-knit group of kids. We watch them gather at a shaded area where they carefully wash the day’s harvest, then transfer the vegetables to storage containers that will go to the farmers market the next day. Watching it all carefully and offering occasional helpful pointers is program director, Will Bullock.

“City Harvest is an incredible program,” Bullock says with what seems like a father’s pride watching his “kids” succeed and enthused at what they’ve learned.

“It’s really a chance for young people to unplug from their everyday lives, and have a chance to plug into something that I feel gets neglected—and that’s the resources that nature has to offer.”

Bullock relates closely to his young farmers. He grew up in Dorchester, and had an opportunity to work on a farm when he was 15. Working with the Trustees of Reservations, he’s been involved in farming ever since.

“To have the opportunity to give other young people who are from the same community that I’m from, who have the same story that I had growing up, to have the opportunity to have a transformation in their lives….well, that’s the biggest blessing I can have.”

At the farmer’s market the next day, Justin Riggins is happily bagging up some corn, string beans, and tomatoes for another customer.

“Thank you!” he says with a smile as he gives her the bag.

Will Bullock smiles, too

“For a young person—fifteen, sixteen years old—to know the work that went into a single tomato, and be able to say, ‘Here you go…’ To be able to give it to someone who doesn’t have access to that quality…that’s impactful for that young person, and it teaches them at a young age that they can make a huge difference.”